Desperate Romantics in Chelsea

Along with many others, I have recently been watching the new historic drama from the BBC, Desperate Romantics about the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. I tend to get hooked on most historic dramas, but this has also got me thinking about the former homes of the artists in Chelsea.

During the mid 19th century, when the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood were beginning to leave their mark on the world, Chelsea was one of the most popular places for artists to live. Both Dante Gabriel Rosetti and William Holman Hunt lived along Cheyne Walk for a number of years – along with many other famous artists including, J.M.W. Turner and James Abbott McNeill Whistler.

Cheyne Walk 1870 (before the Embankment) - supplied by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Libraries

For a full history of Cheyne Walk – Historical overview of Cheyne Walk

Dante Gabriel Rosetti lived at Queens House along Cheyne Walk from 1862 to 1882. The house was built in 1717 and named Queens House as it was thought to have been the home of Catherine of Braganza, wife of Charles II – but this has been proven to be untrue. Dante Gabriel Rossetti lived here with his brother William and poet Algernon C. Swinburne. Rosetti’s residence along Cheyne Walk also caused distress amongst his neighbours, as it was here that he kept a menagerie of unusual animals, including wombats, parrots, an armadillo and peacocks.

16 Cheyne Walk, London

Dante Gabriel Rossetti reading to Theodore Watts Dunton in the drawing room at 16 Cheyne Walk

Towards the end of the 19th century Chelsea was such a popular place for artists to live that a number of houses in the area, most notably in Glebe Place, were designed specifically as artists studios.

My research on Cheyne Walk has recently featured on FindaProperty.com and in The Times